Solo Travel Adventures: Safe Travel for Women, Preparing for a Trip, Overcoming Fear, Travel Tips

The Wanderer's Guide to Free Lodging: Insights from a House Sitting Expert with guest Kate Evans

• Cheryl Esch-Solo Travel Advocate/Travel Coach/Freedom Traveler • Season 2 • Episode 83

Share episode

Venture into the world of nomadic living with Kate Evans, a true maestro of house sitting, who gracefully shares her tapestry of travel tales and the savvy behind her cost-effective lifestyle. Her story, reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking's whimsical adventures, unfolds to reveal a serendipitous discovery that transformed her globetrotting dreams into reality. As Kate guides us through the art of securing charming abodes across the globe, she brings a spark of inspiration to fellow wanderers who are yearning for their next chapter of exploration without the financial strain.

Peek behind the curtain of popular house sitting platforms, where Kate and I exchange notes on the unique features and safety nets tailored for solo adventurers. We unravel the thread of confidence woven through the careful vetting processes and community reviews that these platforms offer. For couples enticed by the allure of individual space, we shine a light on the concept of separate sits, broadening the horizon of possibilities within the nomadic lifestyle. This episode serves as a stepping stone for those itching to dip their toes into the waters of house sitting, arming them with the know-how to embark on their journey.

As we draw the curtains on our session, the essence of 'Wanderland: Living the Traveling Life' beckons, inviting our listeners to explore the richness of travel experiences that house sitting cultivates. We celebrate the deep connections and local interactions that flourish when one fully immerses in the tapestry of a new community. Kate's chronicles serve as both a guide and an ode to the nomadic spirit, offering a compass that points toward the realization that the true essence of travel lies not just in the destinations, but in the warmth of the people and the stories shared along the way.

Visit Kate's website to purchase her books for more resources and tips.
www.kateevanswriter.com
Instagram @katenomadicwriter
https://www.facebook.com/KateEvansWriter

Instagram @solotraveladventures50

Facebook community: Solo Travel for Women Over 50

Send me a message or share your solo travel story with me.
https://www.speakpipe.com/SoloTravelAdventures

Leave a review:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/solo-travel-adventures-safe-travel-for-women-preparing-for-a-trip-overcoming-fear-travel-tips/id1650161410

Speaker 1:

Hey sister travelers. Well, how would you like to travel longer and for less money? Have you ever considered using house sitting as a means to travel and not have to pay for accommodations? Well, I have a guest on today who has years of experience of utilizing this tactic to travel more and save money. We know accommodations can often take up quite a large chunk of our budget for travel, so Kate Evans will be on today to share her tips and strategic ways that you can use house sitting for your next trip.

Speaker 1:

Kate Evans is an author of eight books, including a duet of memoirs, wonderland Living the Traveling Life, which chronicles her house-sitting adventures, and her other book, call it Wonder, an odyssey of love, sex, spirit and travel. She's an emeritus faculty from San Jose State University in California. She has also taught in China, japan, thailand and Mexico. Kate and her husband live part of the year in Baja California, sur Mexico, and the rest of the time they travel. Kate has also traveled solo as well, so she has some experience there that she is going to offer in our interview today. Some experience there that she is going to offer in our interview today. So I hope you enjoy it and get some great ideas for ways that you can utilize house sitting to your advantage when you travel. Welcome to Solo Travel Adventures for Women 50 and Older. I'm Cheryl Esch, your host, solo travel advocate, freedom traveler and coach. This is your passport to adventure. Well, hello, kate. Thank you so much for being here today on my podcast.

Speaker 2:

Hi, cheryl, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Well, kate, you are an expert, in my opinion, of all things house sitting, and that's mainly why I want you to come on and really share all your expertise. But before we get to that, I always love to hear everybody's story of how they got hooked into travel Like. What is your backstory on that? If you could share?

Speaker 2:

that with us?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's interesting.

Speaker 2:

I've been thinking about this since you mentioned you might ask me this question and I know that when I was a kid I lived a very structured life, you know, with school and all the planned activities and all of that, and when we would go on vacation, my parents and my sisters and I it always felt like there were so many more possibilities of ways to live and things to do.

Speaker 2:

I saw my parents kind of relax and get outside of the sort of structured mode, and so there was something always so appealing about it, whether we went in our RV to national parks I remember the first time I took a flight was I don't know how old I was, maybe 10 or 11. And we went to Disneyland. We were living in Northern California, we flew down to LA to go to Disneyland, my parents took us on a cruise when I was in high school maybe a junior in high school and just all of those experiences just really made me feel like there were so many other possibilities of ways to live, and it was both that and reading for sure. I mean, I fell in love with Pippi Longstocking and you know she was living by herself you know, so did I?

Speaker 2:

Oh, yay, Pippi. We all love Pippi, and so there was something so freeing about that. I loved Harriet the Spy, that Harriet would get on her bike and just had this freedom to ride her bicycle all over Manhattan. So there's always been something about wandering and exploring that has always deeply appealed to me as a person who's always curious about how people live. What do people do with this their living time?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, mine goes back to my childhood too, I think. But uh, yeah, it's just like.

Speaker 1:

I think you travel a lot as a kid. Um, I just recalled what we did, but not not outside the US, but I do recall, like you said, you had an RV trip. We had a summer RV trip that our family took. It was like five weeks and we hit like all these national parks and it's just, I don't know fond memories, like you said, that that wondering, that, just, you know, not having a schedule and just exploring things was just so, you know, just enticing for me and I enjoyed it like you did. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Feels so freeing, doesn't it?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, yeah, and I think you know as I got older I wanted to recapture that so have done some travel, as I'm sure you have too. So you've done some solo travel, but I think right now you're you travel a lot with your husband and you do some house sitting. So share with us, like, how you got into that house sitting and how that all came about for you. Sure.

Speaker 2:

Well, about 11 or 12 years ago actually, I took an early retirement from the university where I was teaching in California and my husband was already retired and we just actually for a year lived without a house and just traveled. And we got this idea in a variety of ways. I actually write about it in my first memoir, which is called Call it. Wonder why we took that leap. There's a lot to say about that. But for a whole year we would stay with friends. We actually had friends in Australia and India who said come and visit. And we said are you sure you mean it? Because we will and we did and we also traveled a lot in the States. We rented a lot of Airbnbs and we're just sort of living like that as a sort of an experiment for a year. But then someone we knew invited us to house sit for them in the Santa Cruz mountains, which had actually been where we'd been from, and we needed to go back there to do some medical stuff. So he asked us if we would just stay in his place for a couple of weeks. And I wasn't even thinking about it as house sitting at the time. I was just thinking, oh cool, we have a free place to stay. Well, we hadn't got to ask a lot of questions, we're just like cool, we'll come and stay in your place.

Speaker 2:

We didn't really know him that well, and it turned out he had a little small farm oh, I mean, it was a house in the mountains and that he had a few ducks and chickens, but it was actually 40 ducks, chickens, rabbits, geese and a cat. It was a beautiful spot with a gorgeous garden, and we at first, though, were very overwhelmed because Dave had to get up at six. Of course. I say Dave had to do this. Dave had to get up at six in the morning and go feed all those animals, and when we realized that was what we were going to be doing every morning, we thought, oh my God. Also, as I write about in my second book, second memoir Wanderland, which is really about house sitting, I write about how, when we first showed up because it was a farm and he had the windows open in the summer there were flies buzzing all around the house he had been trying to hold it together while his wife and kids had already taken off on on their trip, and so he just had a lot going on.

Speaker 2:

So when he left, we closed the windows, killed all the flies and then I started focusing on what was amazing about this experience, which were a couple couple things. One of them was the location beautiful mountains, trees, gorgeous property, but also they had this incredible garden and I just started like pulling all the vegetables and the fruit from the trees and cooking and I kind of became the farmer's wife and Dave became the farmer and taking care of the animals, and suddenly I was like, wow, we're sort of living this other life. This is really interesting. And by the time it came time to leave, I'd actually fallen in love with the place and was sort of sad to leave. But what happened during that time?

Speaker 2:

Because I think I was open to this it came across somehow on the internet that wow, they're actually websites that people sign up for where they house sit for other people. And I thought and you know this was over 10 years ago Now a lot of people know about this, but back then not as many did, and so I said wait a minute, we could. This could be a game changer, because we knew at this point that our year experiment was something we wanted to extend. But wow, if we could stay in all these places for free, in actual neighborhoods and have this experience of living other lives like we just had right there. That might be really cool. So I signed up for two platforms and right away we got a house sit up in Washington state and we went and we did it and that was the start and so I'd say in the last decade we've probably done about 80 house sits all over the world.

Speaker 1:

Wow, Wow, and that first one was that your first experience like tending to those kinds of animals and doing that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Was it? Well, I grew up in a kind of a rural area. I belonged to 4-H, I had two show ducks and my sister had some chickens, so I bet I'd never been around that many before. Dave hadn't really either, to my knowledge, and um, so yeah it was. It was sort of uh, learning on the fly that the owner didn't seem too worried about it. He was just like, okay, here's how you handle it and here's how you feed them, here's what you do. And so, yeah, it was a swift learning curve.

Speaker 2:

But there was a certain amount of comfort with it, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Because I don't know that I would have felt because I don't have that kind of experience Cats and dogs, maybe birds and other small critters, but I don't know that I would be able to. I mean, but that's that's interesting, you had that background and that's. You felt more comfortable, obviously, with that kind of situation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Well, and obviously with house sitting, you can. On all these different platforms, you can only apply to ones that you're comfortable with. For example, I know a woman that is not too into dogs and loves cats, so she pretty much only applies for cats, cats.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah there's. I've seen all kinds, you know horses, birds, reptiles.

Speaker 2:

We took care of a tortoise named Roberto once, who actually lived in the closet in the house, which was really unusual. We had to bring him. He was heavy. We had to bring him outside once a day to get some sun and feed him out there and then let him go back in his favorite spot in the house. Any other crazy animals that you have to watch? I think that was probably one of the craziest. I know people that have done snakes and so forth.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Really my my bag, but I do. I do remember we did a house sit, actually in Utah, for two months one winter, which was really great because we love to ski, and so we were able to ski for a couple of months and we had Two chickens and a rabbit, and what was? The rabbit lived in indoors. Chickens and a rabbit, and what was? The rabbit lived indoors in a cage and she said let the rabbit out once in a while and it was just sort of a pooping machine. I think that's what rabbits?

Speaker 2:

are. It was so cute, but it didn't want to be touched, it didn't want to be cuddled. So I was like, oh, but it was great because those are sort of low maintenance animalstenance animals and we didn't feel guilty about going and skiing all day long, going and skiing.

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, 80 places and all across the globe. We know that accommodations can really take up a big chunk of your finances. Know your finances or your budget for travel, and so, of course, I don't know what the stats are. I don't know. I'd say. Would you say it's like 30% of your budget maybe Probably Depends on where you're going, as we know Exactly, and what your standards are Correct.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there you go, right, what your standards are Good. So how would what would you recommend? I know it's probably in one of your books which, um, we'll, at the end we'll go ahead and let you just list all those books and where we can find them, because I'm sure it has a lot, a lot more detail than we'll be able to get into today. But you know, what advice would you give to someone on, you know, just starting? How should they start?

Speaker 2:

house sitting.

Speaker 2:

Right. Well, I think the best advice around that is to start applying for house sits where you live, because you will be local, so they'll be more interested in you, because then maybe they'd even get a chance to meet you before they asked you to do it. They know that you're nearby, so it'd be less likely that you would cancel. And also, the shorter sits are a lot less competitive. People tend to like the longer sits six weeks, eight weeks, eight weeks, months, what's you know? And um, so you know if, even if you're working, it'd be cool, you know?

Speaker 2:

Oh, let's say I live in the silicon valley in california. Oh well, look, there's um. Live in, let's say, san jose, california, which is about an hour outside of san francisco. Oh, look, there's a. There's a weekend house sit in san francisco. Maybe I'll apply for that. We'll go spend, I'll go spend the weekend in San Francisco and it's just like two or three days, and so that way you automatically start these five-star reviews that are all local short sits. Then you can start applying being more competitive for the ones that are longer, that are international and kind of. The more you know the places that appeal to people, to a lot of people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great advice. I started doing that just going doing local because I'm prepping for, you know, some international, so I wanted to get those reviews Right. But I like the I like the advice of looking at the shorter sits. I hadn't really considered that because, you're right, it does seem like there's more applications for some of those longer stays, so there's like more competition, as you mentioned, for those longer stays. So that's great advice. I love that. Yeah, would you say one more thing?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. I can just say one more thing about that, which is even the shorter ones internationally are less competitive. So we just have this whole thing set up, where we're going to Europe and doing a bunch of house sitting starting this fall and we got a three-night house sit in London. We just get off the plane and boom three nights in London awesome a lot of times the London ones are, you know, snapped up pretty quickly.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure, because this one was only three nights there, there was not as much competition. I thought, well, this is better than staying a couple of nights in a hotel, hotel, yeah that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

I love it really. Good advice now. I know you, um, are doing this currently with your husband, but is house sitting something that you would recommend for a female solo traveler? Do you feel like it's a safe option for them?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. In fact, I know I'm connected with a lot of nomads. However, they describe themselves, whether they're digital nomads or retired or whatever it is, and many of them are single women who do this all over the world. One of the really great things about it is, obviously there's a platform. People have to pay to get onto the platform. Of course, they don't pay.

Speaker 2:

You know, when you get a house that people don't pay you to sit or you don't pay them. That that's what I really actually very much like that, because it's more of like an equitable relationship. You know it's a give and take, but to get on the platform you have to pay and then clearly, not only do the sitters get reviews, but the homeowners get reviews as well, so you can, as a single woman, go through and see what other people have said about it. You can look and see if there have been any other single women that have house sat for these people. Sometimes people specifically request's a couple. They might say our dog doesn't really like strange men it only likes women, so there might be things like that.

Speaker 2:

So, again, I just know a number of women that do this. I also know couples straight couples, when I'm specifically talking about that lesbian couples as well who do a lot of this traveling, and then they're like, oh, we feel like spending some time apart, so they might take separate houses, or one will stay at home and the other one will go out and and do a sit solo. So, and the reason, yeah, so, and those are, again, you know, women doing it by themselves. So I know couples that spend all their time together, and especially nomads, and they feel like they need to take a break from each other.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense, cause you're you know, when you're nomads, you don't go to an office to work or you don't like I mean, and if you're working digitally, you're working in the house or wherever you're staying. I get that needing to like. Bring me back to 2020 and COVID, and I felt the same way. Just, I was still married at the time and just feeling like I needed to, like, I need to work outside. That you know just getting out, you know I understand that. You know just needing some of that alone time. So that's. I've never heard of that, but that makes sense, totally makes sense, right, right.

Speaker 2:

I think it's a great yeah, yeah, no. I think it's a great move for for people to uh, yeah, just to, to keep things, um, to give you know, provide a little space. Sometimes it's important, Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Now, not that we're affiliates, uh, but I only I know of Trusted House Sitters. You mentioned two platforms. What is the other one that you have used?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there's actually multiple ones that I've used. So I've definitely used Trusted House Sitters a lot. I've used one called House Sitters America when I was traveling, you know, mostly in the States. Okay, I've used House Sit Mexico, which is specifically looking for house sitting in Mexico. I belong to another one oh, what is the name of it? You know I have. I have them all listed actually in the back of my book, and then there's there's other places you can find it too, but, um, yeah, I belong to one right now, two right now that have a little bit more going on in Europe, and so I actually belong to multiple ones depending on what my specific needs are at a particular time. So they all have advantages and disadvantages. I mean, clearly, trusted House Sitters is the largest platform right now. However, it's much more competitive and so sometimes, if you belong to some of the others, your chances maybe of getting a sit might be a little bit better.

Speaker 2:

The other thing about trusted house sitters as good as it's been to us, they made a rule change, I think, last year, where as many people as wanted could apply for the house sit until the homeowner cut it off. Now they only receive five applications. Owner cut it off. Now they only receive five applications. This is really important for sitters to realize, because you'll say a lot of times you'll see these super popular ones come up and by the time you click on it it's gone. It'll say review Well, that's not the homeowner doing that, that's trusted house sitter that cuts it off after five applications. So the homeowner then has to look at those five and if they're not happy with any of those five they can reject them all and then repost it. So sometimes when you see a great sit and it disappears, sometimes it will reappear, oh and that's why, okay, yeah, thank you for sharing.

Speaker 1:

I wasn't aware of that, that new rule, so that I guess kind of makes sense. But yeah, so I had heard you have to jump on like when you see a new, like a brand new posting, you know how sit to like apply right away if you're interested, because and I wasn't aware, it was because they kind of cut it off after you know five applicants. So thank you for sharing that detail. Yeah, I was not aware of that.

Speaker 1:

And the other places you mentioned, I I see them being more beneficial because they seem to be more location specific. Like you said, you had the house at Mexico which would just be in Mexico and such it would make sense that those are less inundated, like trusted house sitters. You know, like with applicants.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the other one I just remembered the name of it that we belong to is called well. There's two House Match, okay, and there's another one called House Carers, c-a-r-e-r-s. That one has a lot of European ones in it, so, but again, there are still more. I think there are probably at least 15 or 20 platforms out there, but we do have other ways we get house sits other than Okay. How do you do that?

Speaker 1:

Share that with us?

Speaker 2:

Yes, please, okay. Well, one of the ways is, if we know we have a specific region we're interested in, oftentimes there will be a Facebook page that focuses on that region. Sometimes that Facebook page specifically is targeted toward house sitting. Other times it's just sort of like oh, you know expats and you know information and all this. So if it's specifically targeted toward house sitting, then it's kind of obvious. You can scroll through it, look at it, see what's available, post about yourself on there, or if it's not, you can still some people.

Speaker 2:

So this is how we got one house sit in Hawaii. We had gotten a two month house sit on the big Island and we wanted to get a house sit on Maui. So I posted some information about Dave and me with our reviews, a link to our trusted house sitters, and I basically said anybody going anywhere If you want somebody to come and take care of your pets. Sure enough, somebody contacted us and we got a month long house sit on Maui taking care of three cats Wow.

Speaker 2:

And so that you have to be a little more careful though, because obviously that's not vetted in the way the websites are vetted and people don't have to pay for it. So I would always recommend. If someone says they want you to insist on a video call, talk to them, meet them, ask them to show you around the house during the video call without any like advanced warning, because that way it'll be really clear to you what the condition of the place is. A lot of times you can meet the animals on there on the on the video call. So I've actually had people automatically approve us on how on trusted house sitters because they saw we had all these great reviews and what I do, and so I get an invitation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Oh, you are invited to do this sit, and I always contact them. I said, oh, how great, thank you, and I want to meet you before I approve it. I never approve without meeting people, whether it's on a platform or on Facebook people, whether it's on a platform or on Facebook. And there is one other way that we get we get sits, which is well, two other ways. One is sometimes I just post on social media that Dave and I are going to be in this region. We're available.

Speaker 2:

We've had, through friends and friends of friends, gotten sits that way. And then we also belong to kind of two exclusive groups of vetted, experienced house sitters where we give our. If somebody has offered us a sit that we can't take, then we'll refer it to the rest of the group. And how we got into that was just really connecting know with other nomads and house sitters and that's that's, you know, obviously, an experience online joining a variety of groups. There's different groups for nomads and um. You know, travelers especially, there's a lot I'm sure you belong to some that um are women travelers, yeah, yeah. So once you make those connections a lot of times you'll be invited into things like that.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, oh my gosh. Well, that's super advice. I love the video call idea. I mean because I've done some house sits local which I've had a chance to actually meet. You know I can go to their house and meet them beforehand, meet the pet, make sure you know we gel and we connect and but the video thing, yeah, when you're talking about distance and yeah, you just can't be, I mean that was make me feel safer, just kind of knowing what I'd be walking into.

Speaker 2:

I love it, make me feel safer just kind of knowing what I'd be walking into. I love it, thank you, yes, and I would recommend being really clear about some questions that you have. You know, think about it as a, as a mutual meeting, a mutual interview, you know where you ask specific questions. And so, in um Wanderland, I talk about how we began to understand, as we did more sits, that, oh, this is a question we should ask. This is a question we should ask. I'll give you an example. Yeah, kind of an extreme example. We were doing a house sit in Chicago and the dog was hiding under the bed and I wanted to get him out from under the bed. So I put a treat under there and he actually bit my finger. And that was the only time I've been bitten by an animal on a house sit. I mean, I bled, but it didn't. He didn't chop my finger off, but it was. You know it was kind of traumatic.

Speaker 1:

I thought, oh my God, this doctor.

Speaker 2:

I feel terrible about that, so I contacted the homeowner. I said, oh yeah, yeah, he's. He's done that to me before and I said, oh okay, I need to ask that question. Yeah not just people are going to tell me that, and not only that do I need to say. Has your dog ever bitten you or anybody else?

Speaker 2:

A lot of times people say no and then I'll say has your dog ever nipped anybody else? Because you know it's hard for dog owners I understand to not, you know to acknowledge. And a lot of times they say well, you know it is a border collie, he will nip sometimes. And then I say, okay, what do you do when that happens? So that you know there's some kind of understanding of that, you know there's some kind of understanding of honestly. I feel like I could handle anything. I just need the information.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I agree, that's a great question to ask because you don't want to be caught in where you know especially if you're in another country and they actually do injure you that you have to go get medical care. I mean, and not knowing that ahead of time, yeah, that could be turned into a little bit of a mess. That's a great question, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I don't want to, I don't want to make it sound like that's something common. You know, like I said, we've been with so many animals and and this dog he was reactive, feeling, you know, kind of pushed, and I felt fine with him afterwards, continued to work with him, just knew that I couldn't corner him and it wasn't that big of a deal. But some people wouldn't be comfortable with that at all. So you just need to make sure you ask questions around your needs and your comfort.

Speaker 1:

What has been outside of maybe that example? What has been your most challenging house sit that you've had to do?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Well, actually, this is another good example of one where we didn't ask the right questions. Part of it was because we actually got this house sit through a Facebook site that was about Panama, so I had posted that we already had one house sit in Panama, that we'd gotten through Trusted House Sitters and we wanted to see another part of Panama, so I posted on the Bocas del Toro site. Bocas del Toro is this incredible area that has beautiful islands and water. It's just gorgeous. So we wanted to see it. So I just posted on the Bocas del Toro site hey, anybody happen to need a house sitter during this month, because this is when we're available.

Speaker 2:

And I received a message right away from a really awesome couple. I want to make that clear. They're a really great couple. They said, yeah, we actually need you that whole month. Would you be willing to do it with our two dogs? And we said, yes, of course. Well, we were so excited about it. I didn't really get important information, which is that, of course, panama is very hot and this couple, they are comfortable living a kind of Swiss family Robinson lifestyle, and they don't not only don't have air conditioning because it's off grid, but there were no ceiling fans, so it was really really hot and miserable. That said, it was probably in some other ways one of the most wonderful and amazing houses, even though I was physically uncomfortable a lot of the time.

Speaker 2:

First of all, the couple was really great. When we showed up that night, they took us out to dinner with 10 of their friends and we met these wonderful people. This often happens, actually, where we show up early and people introduce us to their neighbors and friends, but this one was like we're having a party, kate and Dave are here, and so we had a really good made, a really great connection with people that we ended up spending time with, that, that took us places on their boats and and also just being there was pretty amazing. Like I said, it's just really a stunning location, but it was hard to sleep at night.

Speaker 1:

Oh, I bet, oh my gosh. That reminds me of my. I did the same thing. Well, we, we did an Airbnb in Belize and it had ceiling fans and I also thought, oh, it's April, it's not going to be that hot, and I kind of knew it didn't have air condition, or I just ignored that it didn't have air condition. It was so hot and it got I mean, it got really uncomfortable to sleep. I understand that and yeah. So, asking the right questions, there you go Exactly what has been your all time favorite house sit and where was it?

Speaker 1:

That's such a hard one, I know.

Speaker 2:

Each one has just incredible advantages and is always an incredible learning experience and just an amazing experience. But you know, when you said that, I think the first thing that popped into my mind truly was our long we've done two long house sits on the big island of Hawaii and I just I adore Hawaii and in both cases we had a car we could use, and that's a whole other thing that could be a really nice component of a house. A lot of times they will give you, you let you use their car.

Speaker 2:

so we had a car we could use so we could see the island. We in both cases had a dog that I just really fell in love with. Both of them were sort of off British well, one more so than the other, but we showed up on one of the three month one, two, two days early, just totally hit it off with a couple. They're now friends. They've actually moved from Hawaii and we're still friends and I would love to see them again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they introduced me to again their neighbors. In fact, how it happened is in the morning the first morning, jamie, the homeowner Jamie, said to me hey, kate, I go on walks in the morning with my girlfriends. Do you want to come with me? I said, heck, yeah. So that morning we went on a walk in the neighborhood with her friends and then, once Jamie left, I became Jamie and just continued walking with her friends connected with them.

Speaker 2:

I like to play the ukulele and a couple of them play the ukulele, so we'd get together and play the ukulele. One of them was working on a book and had me help her with her book, because I'm a book editor also yeah, and at 76 years old her book got published by a university press.

Speaker 2:

I had been there to help her at that moment. I mean, it probably would have anyway. It was really great writing, but I was just honored to be part of that process, so there was so much that came out of it, in addition, of course, to being in Hawaii To the beauty of it, but the whole outside of that, the experience sounds like it was amazing.

Speaker 1:

I think that's part of the charm, at least for me, when people travel is that making those connections and, you know, finding community especially if you slow travel right, like which is what you're doing when you're doing house sits essentially is you're taking the time to really get involved in the community, make those connections, and so that sounds like well, I mean, who, who can complain about Hawaii in itself? But the all over experience seems like it was just like you felt home, maybe like you felt like you were home.

Speaker 2:

It did.

Speaker 2:

And it's funny. A lot of times, when it comes time to leave, I get this feeling of like oh, wait a minute, this isn't my house, and so there's part of me that's a little clingy and sometimes it gets a little sad about that. But then there's also part of me that's excited, you know, for the next thing. But I just guess I want to emphasize that I think that's one reason why it's so great for solo travelers is because there can be, you know, a loneliness component of it. But you show up, you meet people right away and there you are, living in a neighborhood. You're not sequestered in some hotel room or Airbnb, but you're in an actual neighborhood. Maybe I walk in the dog and you meet people, or oh, here's our favorite cafe, and so, yeah, I think it's great for solos because of that.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I would totally agree. I mean, I'm actually on a house sit right now with a dog and I just met a whole bunch of neighbors walking the dog. I mean, like it's it's a suburban neighborhood but it's a I mean very friendly, so I get that it's. It's gosh, I'd move in this neighborhood if I could. Right.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. Yeah, it's really fun to try on all these different lives.

Speaker 1:

I like that idea too. I think, and even as you said, your first year you guys were kind of testing this out. I think it's a great way to for others who are considering, you know, maybe this whole nomadic lifestyle to test it out. You know, do some house sits and see if you like the that lifestyle before you fully commit, because it is a lifestyle change and it's not for everybody, but there's, you know, I've interviewed my last person that I interviewed. She has found that it is her lifestyle, like she doesn't see herself ever going back to owning a home or anything permanent like that. So definitely something to try out, I think, as a traveler. So, yeah, so you've written I think you said eight books. Is that correct?

Speaker 1:

Yes so tell us, I guess, just maybe tell us quickly the names of them, and then where can we find those books? Because it sounds like it has tons of resources and information that we just maybe touched the surface of. So what are those names?

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, I've been a writer my whole life. So the other books I've written a few novels, collections of poems and two memoirs. But I think for this let me just and people can find all that information on my website you can go right to my website to see all my books, which is kateevanswritercom. That's my website. But let me just tell everybody about this one.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's the one on it.

Speaker 2:

It's called Wanderland, living, the Traveling Life, and this one is mainly about house sitting and actually in the back I have a bunch of tips. So it's sort of like it's the stories and the cumulative stories you see how I learn, or we learn as we go along, and the cumulative stories you see how I learn or we learn as we go along and then at the end is all the information about you know kind of what we've learned over time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the platforms or resources, that sounds amazing. Yes, exactly, and I will make. I even.

Speaker 2:

I even give an example of an application, so like how to write an application for a sit, if you really want it. I talk about why. Why to specifically, for example, mention the name of the animals? Because what's most important to people is not really taking care of their house, which is part of it, but it's mostly about taking care of their animals. So just show them how much you love and care about animals, and there's a lot of ways to do that in the letter.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I love it. I'm I'm definitely going to pick one up because I think I need to fix up my application. Well, this has been so informational even for me, but I hope also for my listeners and you've been great examples. I love the resources and everything we've talked about. You've been so wonderful and I'll make sure I include all, like your website. You just mentioned any other links we will include in the show notes for people to click on and find you and get your books. Any other last words of wisdom you want to give any kind of solo female travelers that you would say.

Speaker 2:

You know, I titled the book Wonderland. It's not Wonderland like Alice in Wonderland it's Wonderland. And I just think, you know if this is a fit for people just to think about it as both wandering and wondering.

Speaker 2:

You know, I think that there's sometimes um, sometimes, I know I get kind of like wrapped up in okay, I'm going from point A to point B and then you know, but the actual experience itself, um, you know, just, it opens up your life to wonder about, about you know, the places you were wandering. You know it's really, um, coming from the heart as opposed to always the head when it comes to traveling. I mean, they're obviously both important, but sometimes I just love the feeling of imagining what the possibilities are. It just lights me up. So that's one reason why I'm kind of I like to encourage people to kind of step outside, you know, the box a little bit and into what I call the fertile void, because you know, when you step off, into this sense of, oh, what's going to happen, it's fertile, there's always something interesting that can occur and that will occur. So, um, I love that. Yes, it's true.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be different for everybody, right? All right, well, kate, thank you again. It's been a joy, and again we're going to put all those links, especially for your website and anything else, so that people can get your books and wonder in their travels right, I love it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you again. Thank you so much. I appreciate you All right, bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Hey sister travelers, did this podcast inspire and encourage you or move you to get out there and travel? Wonderful, there are three ways you can thank me. First one is leave a written review for the show on Apple podcast to share the show with your sister travelers, your friends, your family and three subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. And thank you again for listening to the show. Sisters, be fearless, take the and get out there and have an adventure.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Cheryl Esch

Host

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.